August 10 – Daily Notes – Amanda

A good portion of 1 Corinthians, including today’s reading, are about how to handle things internally, amongst the believers, versus externally, between believers and non-believers. Not that it’s done to be secretive or deceitful, but simply to bless the non-believer and not to cause them to stumble. In a modern context this might mean avoiding language like “the blood of the lamb” that doesn’t make much sense and might sound off-putting to a non-believer when around one. This is not about separation but instead because of the hopes of eventual inclusion.

Ezra 10:1-44:

1-5 – The Israelites realized their sin and turned away from it.

9-14 – The sin was so rampant amongst the Israelites that they were going to have to be cleansed in shifts.

1 Corinthians 6:1-20:

1-8 – Paul is telling the believers not to defame each other, even if justified, in front of nonbelievers because it lessens the chances that they would want to come to faith. He urges them, instead, to accept and forgive a few wrongdoings for the good of the whole.

12 – Though all things that God created are permissible for us to use, but not all are beneficial to us and thus should probably be avoided.

16-17 – Paul states that when we affiliate ourselves with anything else, we are connected to that thing instead of to the Lord.

19-20 – Life is not just about what we want or what we enjoy. We, through our bodies, have been entrusted with the temple of the Lord and should handle it properly.